from the a-modern-french-revolution dept.David Forrest writes "Here's a tidbit from FAST (http://www.france-science.org/english): Many French scientists are joining the international scientific palace revolt of researchers against their publishers (in an effort to make research results more accessible than by paying thousands of dollars of subscription fees), and the CNRS has established a "Center for Direct Scientific Communication" for Internet-based publication. The Center's director denies any attempt to replace journal literature, claiming simply that there is a need for a new level of scientific communication and that the two types of venue can coexist peacefully. Other French scientists in the movement also deny a declaration of war while insisting that publicly funded labs can not afford and should not have to pay millions of francs in annual subscriptions for access to research that for the most part is produced by public funds. (Le Monde, April 21, p23, Pierre Le Hir)"